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I’m not undecided, I’m unhappy III

33 comments on I’m not undecided, I’m unhappy III

I’m not undecided, I’m unhappy III

: John Perry Barlow convinces himself to continue support John Kerry in spite of Kerry himself. He blogs on the plane back to the U.S. from Germany:

The idea that we might actually re-elect George Bush is unfathomable – indeed, inexcusable – to them. As one of them put it to me, “We can forgive you for electing him once. As we ought to know, any electorate can make a tragic mistake. But if you elect him twice, we will start fearing you Americans as much as we currently fear your government.” I suspect this is a sentiment one could encounter almost anywhere on God’s blue earth. If the election were global as, in fairness, it probably ought to be, it would be a pulverizing landslide.

Well, that’s offensive on a few levels — namely, suggesting that Bush is Hitler (is that officially a cliche by now?) and going the World Test one better to suggest that the world should elect our President. But keep moving on, folks:

I had a hard time explaining to the Germans why it’s starting to look like we might just re-elect Bush anyway. For one thing, they have not, after all, seen as much of John Kerry as we have.

And let’s face it, folks, John Kerry is really irritating.

There. I’ve said it. And, having broken the surface tension on that spleen blister, let me just get the rest of this off my chest once and for all….

Generally speaking, it would have been better for the future of the Republic if, upon eliminating Howard Dean, Kerry had been stashed in a location as undisclosed as the one where they usually keep Dick Cheney. Then he could have let Bush defeat himself through policies and actions that no sane electorate could have ratified.

But no. He insisted on campaigning, apparently under the misapprehension that to know him – or at least to know that virtual version of him his marketing wizards had wrapped around him – was to love him. This, unfortunately, has not been the general effect. Gradually, I have watched the steam go out of the Anybody-But-Bush crowd as we realized that anybody, in this instance, was the increasingly irksome John Kerry.

People who, several months ago, were ready to go door-to-door in Ohio in order to defeat Bush are unwilling to even campaign among their friends to elect John Kerry. And I have become, I must admit, one of these. Being an actual Kerry *supporter* just seems, well, un-cool.

Nonetheless, he does go on to convince himself to support Kerry. I’ll let you read the rest.

33 responses to “I’m not undecided, I’m unhappy III”

  1. Eduardo Gimenez Avatar
    Eduardo Gimenez

    It would be appropriate that we, the rest of the world, had a say in electing the USA president.
    The influence your country and government has on our daily life is amazing, for better and for worse.
    You should live a couple of years somewhere else to realize how big this is.
    Just think that I’m not the only one outside USA who is following this election process as if I was directly involved. I feel like a second-class citizen.
    The Internet just made this more intense (and possible).
    The Bush government just made this more painful.
    I’m simplifying a lot here, because I don’t trust so much in my own English to get deeper into it. But I hope you get the point.

  2. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    Eduardo, you are not even a second class citizen, you are a spectator.
    Not only would it NOT be appropriate for the world to have a say in our election, it would be downright scary. We didn’t become the world’s lone superpower by subjecting ourselves to the world’s demands!
    I, for one, am glad that you do not have a say in this upcoming election.

  3. Mike G Avatar
    Mike G

    Of all the reasons one might have for supporting Kerry, surely one of the very worst is doing so because Europeans can’t imagine Bush being reelected. A population which has, on the subject of America, far more monolithic media than we do, which has had the luxury of turning ultra-pacifist under our protection, which greatly fears many aspects of our economic life, and yet which still emigrates in large numbers to America in search of something they’re missing (what could it be?), is hardly in a position by training or interests to judge fairly what the policies of the world’s lone policeman should be in a time of war.
    As far as Eduardo’s complaint goes– when your country, whichever it is, can field a modern army and contributes them to the fight against Islamofascism, and when your country demonstrates an ability to assimilate and democratize its own Muslim subculture, instead of allowing them to fester in suburban projects, then you will find that you have a say with the American president, as Britain, Australia, even Poland do today.

  4. Brett Avatar
    Brett

    Jeff,
    Barlow starts out with this:
    “I’m aloft somewhere between Rome and Cincinnati, jetting back towards my crazed, stupefied, dangerous country after three days in Berlin. I dread coming home. You know things have taken a paradoxical turn when Germany feels safe, sane, and free by comparison with the United States of America. But that’s how it looks to me.”
    To laud Germany as a more “safe, sane, and free” place than the US is absurd. Germany is the poster child for the detriments of a socialist agenda in a “democracy.” Germany is not a model that should be followed. It should be tossed aside and ridiculed for the foolishness it is.
    Which is exactly why our elections should not be open to the world. The standard of living that we have earned for ourselves would disappear in a few simple votes and Americans would find themselves supporting hundreds of millions of unemployed or low-wage folks around the world, just as Germany offers endless benefits like this to its citizens.
    No thanks. I already have children that need my support.

  5. Eduardo Gimenez Avatar
    Eduardo Gimenez

    Mike: Ok, so I don’t have a say in that election, and you don’t have a say in my country policies. By the way, I live in Argentina.
    Mike G: In any case, I’m a forced spectator. I din’t “opt in”. And I don’t understand your requirements, particularly that “allowing them to fester in suburban projects” part. Would you please clarify?
    Brett: It would be good if you step down a bit your “standard of living” we all pay for, or at least act more carefully, for the benefit of the rest of the world. “Share” is a word for it.

  6. Brett Avatar
    Brett

    Eduardo,
    There is no reason why you and those in your country can’t have the wealth that we in the United States have. We live in a global economy. About a month ago I bought a custom-made book from a company in Argentina. I found the company on the Internet. It was the best price and they did the job perfectly.
    To “share” our wealth does not help you. It only reduces our desire to continue our output as it is because it then disappears.
    Better if you educate yourselves and compete with us – because you can – and raise your standard of living yourself. Then we both receive the benefit of your skills/products/services and you don’t have to take from anyone else for what you need. You instead earn it.

  7. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    I neither care where you live, nor do I care about your country’s policies. I don’t live there. You should adopt the same philosophy. You’re the one saying you would like to vote in our election.
    And “share” as you use it is just another word for socialism.

  8. Eduardo Gimenez Avatar
    Eduardo Gimenez

    Mike: Your government and your country as a “superpower” do care about my country’s policies. And I guess you mean “socialism” as in “USSR”. It ain’t necessarily so. Anyway, I meant to use “share” as in “share a small decaying planet”, so you can say it’s another word for ecologism.
    Brett: In a perfect world you have a perfect argument. We are far from that. Markets are not so free. Forces are not so equal.
    I want to make clear that “to vote in your election” is sort of a metaphor. If we had better international institutions, and your country accepted a less imposing role, such metaphors would be innecessary.

  9. Brett Avatar
    Brett

    Eduardo,
    Can you clarify?
    When you say “better international institutions,” do you mean that you wish the UN were sronger? If so, in what way?
    When you say “less imposing role,” do you mean militarily or in other ways?

  10. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    Yes Eduardo, my government may care about your country’s policies, that’s why we have foreign relations. But your country’s policies are not for me to decide, neither are our countries policies open for you to decide. That is my only point as far as this debate goes.

  11. Eddie Avatar
    Eddie

    “But your country’s policies are not for me to decide, neither are our countries policies open for you to decide.”
    Unless those countries happen to be El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Brazil, Venezuela, Chile, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Panama, Indonesia, Italy, Greece, Vietnam and so on and so forth. Otherwise spot on.

  12. mary Avatar
    mary

    Eduardo – When you say that earth is a

  13. Eduardo Gimenez Avatar
    Eduardo Gimenez

    Brett: I mean UN, IMF, World Bank… I’m no expert, but a UN’s Security Council with permanent members with a veto right inherited from WWII seems anachronical. I think those institutions are unbalanced. In the UN’s case, its decisions are not enforceable enough. But I’m in no way capable of describing a practical way to make them better.
    Mike: My point is that your government makes a lot of pressure on my country’s policies. And your country has a strong influence in my personal daily life -as I said before, for better and for worse.
    Maybe the world doesn’t need a country acting as a global police on its own, and I not only mean Iraq but economics, culture, etc.
    By the way, I’m with you about 9/11, about Afghanistan, about fighting terrorists, etc. I am not with you about Iraq, about oil consumption, about international economic policies, etc. I don’t agree with some of your government policies about “internal” issues which later affect us, like intelectual property. I wouldn’t say a word about all that if it didn’t affect me in such a practical and continuous way.

  14. Eduardo Gimenez Avatar
    Eduardo Gimenez

    Mary: Your country is a democracy for its own inhabitants, which is very good. For the rest of the world, it acts as a dictatorship. And I don’t get why a stronger UN would be equal to communism and monarchy.

  15. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    Eddie, please, read the other posts before trying to come back with your not-so-clever retort.

  16. Robert Brown Avatar
    Robert Brown

    Eduardo,
    I suggest you would do much better by paying attention to who you vote for in your own country. Take a close look at your countries economic policies. Much more producting than pineing for “international institutions” that will take our stuff and give it to you.

  17. mary Avatar
    mary

    Eduardo – The United Nations is staffed with unelected elites who are appointed, for the most part, by dictators. When the genocidal Sudanese government can chair the UN

  18. Tim Avatar
    Tim

    I was living in Germany during the Reagan and Bush administrations. Even during the conservative hegemony of Reagan, Thatcher and Kohl, Germans were not happy with our choices and a majority would have voted differently than the majority of Americans.
    I think we should have a vote in Germany. And France. In fact, as a superpower, we really should vote in all other countries elections. I mean, really, everyone wants to vote in our elections, so it is only fair, right?
    Then we could have a truly global test of democracy where the majority of, what, 4 billion eligible voters rules?
    Nirvana! Utopia! Yeah!!!

  19. Eduardo Gimenez Avatar
    Eduardo Gimenez

    Mary: Ok, I’ll get a life, but will you allow me to choose by myself? Ah, didn’t think so.
    Of course the UN as it is is a failure. That’s why I ask for a better UN, although I don’t know for sure how to make one.
    Robert: It took a lot of time and a big economic crisis to get rid of our terrible governments of the ’90s (Menem, de la R

  20. sbw Avatar
    sbw

    John Perry Barlow has made a wonderful contribution to holding off John Ashcroft — who certainly is the kidney stone of the Bush administration. For that alone Barlow deserves our thanks.
    That said, his superficiality is downright scary for proliferating unsubstantiated urban myths and shallow thinking. Here are but a couple:
    Barlow: this Presidential race should not be a personality contest
    Most sensible people never thought it was a personality contest. Heck, Bush mannerisms are enough to instantly quash that strawman.
    Barlow: The war in Iraq alone is unforgivable. While it would be a wonderful thing to have a beacon of democracy in the Middle East, it is criminally misguided to think that we could bomb such a thing into existence.
    Nobody thought we would. The criminally misguided might be those who thought you could get rid of Saddam Hussein without force — particularly with a United Nations rigged by under-the-table oil-for-food money probably tainting three security council votes — and Kerry seemingly oblivious to it, considering the UN a solution rather than the part of the problem that it is.
    If Barlow wants to get the the substance of the issue, he should at least appreciate why so high a percentage of the people think that Kerry is a worse answer than Bush. Their rational decision most likely has to do with dangerous Kerry positions that assume the United Nations is functional, that presume international decisions are based something other than selfish national interest, that believes throwing other people’s money at things solves social problems, and that having good goals is an okay reason to support bad policy.
    Barlow should be a sharp enough dude to recognize his own hubris. Can you, Jeff, recognize Barlow’s hubris? Recognize at least that what Barlow has done is rationalize his decision to support Kerry, not support it.

  21. Karl Avatar
    Karl

    …and with this last post Eduardo displays one of the prime premises of the Left: that people can somehow create Utopia, if only we put the right global bureaucracy in place.
    Democratic republicanism and capitalism are not perfect systems; they just happen to be better than the alternatives. And the folks here are not just comparing it to Soviet socialism (though it was clearly the worst, based on my visit there). There are two main reasons that democratic socialism has had any success in other countries. First their national security, low drug prices, etc., have been subsidized by the United States. So when folks like Eduardo insist that the U.S. “share” the wealth, it should be noted that we already do. We paid for the defense of Western Europe for half a century (and did not ven complain much about it). Americans pay disproportionately high health care costs, particularly for prescription medication, because socialist countries impose price controls, which cause pharmaceutical companies to pass their costs onto the U.S. market, much like someone squeezing one end of a balloon causes the other end to bulge. If the U.S. were to adopt the same socialist policies, it would be like squeezing both ends of the balloon, with very bad results.
    Second, most of the democratic socialist countries are just now having to address the frictions caused by immigration (problems the U.S. has been addressing for a very long time). Do a little reading and discover the extent to which the unemployment systems in the countries are being stressed, or the rising ethnic and religious tensions in these countries. It’s hard to find a successful socialist and multicultural society; that’s probably not a coincidence.
    [As an aside to Barlow’s piece, it’s ironic that he thinks the U.S. can’t bomb a democracy into existence (which is a distortion of the Iraq project in any event) after having visited Germany. Maybe the silliness of that thought would have occurred to him if he had visited Japan instead.]
    Finally, as someone of German descent (which I only note in arguments like these), I must note that the track record of Germany in contributing to the lifting and progress of humanity is, to put it mildly, not in the same galaxy as that of the United States. Jeff rightly points out that Bush is not Hitler. Hitler, however, was Hitler… and German.

  22. paladin Avatar
    paladin

    Karl – wasn’t Hitler Austrian, not German?

  23. Dishman Avatar
    Dishman

    Let’s see if I can get this right…
    In France, there’s a 35 hour work week.
    I don’t have the number here, but the average American work week is over 20% more (above 42 hours). We spend about 20% of our tax dollars on our military, so having a first rate military costs on the order of the taxes we pay on the hours we work and the French don’t. The balance of the income is wealth in our pockets.
    If you have a problem with your lack of influence in the world, then stop feeding at the socialist trough, get off your butt and get to work, Jiminy Cricket. Please.
    Generation after generation, we’ve been working harder than most of the rest of the world, and it’s paying off.
    What have you done for yourself lately?

  24. Eduardo Gimenez Avatar
    Eduardo Gimenez

    Unbelievable. Utopia, go to work… You people don’t take different opinions seriously. It would be good if you could think a bit more about that. For example, about the many people who work endless hours for a few cents. Or the many people who work endless hours trying to make some dream come true. I’m sorry to quit a discussion which doesn’t lead anywhere.

  25. Dishman Avatar
    Dishman

    It’s not utopia. It’s hard work.
    If you want respect, earn it.
    If you want us to vote a particular way, then explain why you think it’s in our interests.

  26. Andy Freeman Avatar
    Andy Freeman

    > Even during the conservative hegemony of Reagan, Thatcher and Kohl, Germans were not happy with our choices and a majority would have voted differently than the majority of Americans.
    And that’s one example why Euros shouldn’t be allowed to vote on anything important.
    If we let the Euros have their way, the USSR not only would still exist, it would be more powerful than it ever was.
    I do think that Germans should vote on US bases in Germany. In fact, I think that an ever-increasing large super-majority should be required to keep those bases. Yup, South Korea too.

  27. sbw Avatar
    sbw

    How unfortunate comments are, for the most part, so fuzzy and peripheral.

  28. mary Avatar
    mary

    Unbelievable. Utopia, go to work… You people don’t take different opinions seriously. It would be good if you could think a bit more about that. For example, about the many people who work endless hours for a few cents
    Sorry, Eduardo, most of us assumed that you were talking about yourself and other resentful, educated, middle-class leftists. I didn

  29. Kat Avatar
    Kat

    The simple fact that France, Germany, Iran,Canada, etc. support John Kerry is all the reason I’d need to vote Bush. It worked in Spain, but it won’t work here–Americans don’t cater to terrorist ass kissers.
    Kerry would negotiate with terrorists as well as bring them to the US in large numbers–no thanks–we have enough of them here already.
    Kerry has embraced the entire political agenda of Susan Akbarpour and other wealthy Iranian-Americans embracing Tehran. Those positions include:
    * ending the fingerprinting of Iranian visitors to the U.S.;
    * expanding “family reunion” visas to allow extended family members of Iranians living in the U.S. to immigrate here legally and in large numbers;
    * offering a “dialogue” with the hard-line, terrorist-supporting clerics in Tehran;
    * help Iran join the World Trade Organization.
    No, thanks–I want them profiled not pampered.
    {It would be appropriate that we, the rest of the world, had a say in electing the USA president.} What a bunch of crap–is this what Kerry means by passing the global test?

  30. Karl Avatar
    Karl

    paladin:
    Hitler was Austrian, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t also German, depending on your historical perspective. Austria had a long history as a German state (prior to its expulsion as a result of the Austro-Prussian War), and it’s pretty clear what Hitler’s thought on the subject was.
    BTW, I wouldn’t want Austrians picking the U.S. President, either.

  31. Tom Grey - Liberty Dad Avatar
    Tom Grey – Liberty Dad

    Jeff, I’ve been blogging on tomgrey.motime.com for over a year now. I’ve really enjoyed your blog; and been annoyed at your avoidance of the Swifties (and I pretty much ignore your support of the foul-mouthed).
    I have long been enraged at Bush-hate, including my occassional posts on JP Barlow’s site. Bush-hate has neutered the Dem criticism. Where are the good points and bad points of his policies, and the good & bad points of alternatives?
    Bush-hating Dems can NOT bring themselves to speak good of Bush, so are NOT honest about offering constructive criticism.
    Bush-hate has also allowed the press to fall down, badly, in letting Kerry get the nomination. The Swifties hated Kerry as soon as his bragging book “Tour of Duty” came out — where was the press interviewing them then, or soon after? Where were YOU? (or me, but hey, we’re just bloggers OK, cut my pay in half … of 0 …)
    It should have been Edwards; but most important, the Dems need (needed?) to follow Tony Blair’s advice: No matter how we got here, we must accept that from this year on, the goal is to create a democratic Iraq of relative peace, calm, and economic growth.
    Being attached to the idea that Bush was wrong to invade makes it almost impossible to be constructive in creating a successful Iraq — because that shows such a HUGE good point, for Bush. Too many Dems suffer from this.
    Your Issues is great, by the way. But it doesn’t yet drive me like the Moral Superiority War–the Left thinking Peace and Genocide is morally superior to fighting evil.
    (By the way, I think I may be the commenter who has left the most comments on your posts without being on your blogroll; you’ve long been on mine, and will remain. I wish you liked ME more. I suggest a C-roll: Commenters Sigh.)

  32. Richard Aubrey Avatar
    Richard Aubrey

    The winner of the all-time oxymoron contest is….
    “European Diplomacy”.
    If European Diplomacy were a disease, would it be worse than the Black Death?
    Do you have any idea how many people have died of European Diplomacy?
    My father was shot in several countries straightening out European Diplomacy.
    Why on earth would we want to let the originators of European Diplomacy–to start with–vote in our elections?
    Do you think we’re nucking futz?
    Do you think American mothers are happy to bear sons who will die bailing your sorry asses out of yet another self-imposed disaster? Wait. Don’t answer that.
    When you can show the collective sense God gave a goose, we’ll talk.
    Three centuries ago, what is now Latin America included law courts, huge cathedrals, universities. European settlement in what is now the US was more like Dogpatch.
    What happened? How’d we get to be the big boys with that lousy start?
    It’s the way we do things.
    You can imitate us or not, but the choice is not without consequence.

  33. Kat Avatar
    Kat

    The Muslim American Political Action Committee has formally endorsed Sen. John Kerry for president.
    “What does it mean for Muslim Americans if President Bush is re-elected?” asked Mukit Hossain, president of MAPAC, in making the announcement. “It means more constricting laws and policies to curtail the civil liberties of the Muslim Americans, and harsher foreign policies toward Muslim countries